U.S. patent number 4,033,070 [Application Number 05/592,609] was granted by the patent office on 1977-07-05 for toy foam glider.
Invention is credited to A. Edward Fogarty, Bonnie Rose Fogarty, Ned Strongin.
United States Patent |
4,033,070 |
Strongin , et al. |
July 5, 1977 |
Toy foam glider
Abstract
A toy glider includes a fuselage, a wing and a rudder made of
flexible resilient foam. The wing passes through a slot in the
fuselage and a notched portion on the leading edge, and a notched
portion on the trailing edge of the wing interlock with the
fuselage.
Inventors: |
Strongin; Ned (Baldwin, NY),
Fogarty; A. Edward (Sarasota, FL), Fogarty; Bonnie Rose
(Sarasota, FL) |
Family
ID: |
24371374 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/592,609 |
Filed: |
July 2, 1975 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
446/68 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63H
27/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A63H
27/00 (20060101); A63H 027/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;46/79 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Pitrelli; John F.
Assistant Examiner: Cutting; Robert F.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Levy; Edward F.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A toy foam glider including a fuselage made of a soft, bendable,
flexible and resilient foam material, a wing member comprising a
thin flat panel of flexible light-weight plastic material, said
fuselage having a width appreciably greater than the thickness of
said wing member, means for removably mounting said wing member on
said fuselage, said mounting means comprising a longitudinal slot
extending through the width of said fuselage and sized to receive
and retain a central portion of said wing member therein, said wing
member having an over-all width greater than the length of said
slot, and said central portion having a width substantially equal
to the length of said slot, and a balance weight mounted on said
fuselage and located forwardly of said wing member, said balance
weight comprising a central cylindrical portion and a pair of end
flanges, said fuselage having a hole extending transversely
therethrough and receiving the cylindrical central portion of said
balance weight.
2. A toy foam glider according to claim 1 in which said wing member
has at least one notch in the central portion thereof sized to
receive the body of said fuselage when said wing member is inserted
in said slot, with the body portion of the wing member bordering
said notch embracing the sides of said fuselage.
3. A toy foam glider according to claim 2 in which said slot is of
a length smaller than the width of the central portion of said wing
member, requiring said wing member to be deformed when inserted
into said slot, and with said wing member returning to shape when
said notch receives said fuselage.
4. A toy foam glider according to claim 3 in which said wing has a
leading edge and a trailing edge and in which said leading edge and
said trailing edge each have a notch in the central portion thereof
registering with said slot in said fuselage.
5. A toy foam glider according to claim 4 in which each of said
notches have side edges embracing the side surfaces of the fuselage
when said wing member is received in said slot, whereby to lock
said wing member in mounted position.
6. A toy foam glider according to claim 1 in which said fuselage is
made of a resilient flexible polyurethane foam.
7. A toy foam glider according to claim 1 in which said fuselage is
made of a low density open cell foam.
8. A toy foam glider according to claim 1 which also includes a
tail member comprising a flat panel of flexible light-weight
plastic material, and a slot formed in the tail portion of said
fuselage and sized to receive and retain said tail member.
9. A toy foam glider according to claim 8 in which said wing
portion and tail portion are each made of a closed cell foam
material.
Description
The present invention relates in general to toy airplanes and more
particularly to a toy glider made of a flexible plastic foam
material.
Conventional toy gliders have, in the past, been made of light wood
such as balsa wood, or other lightweight rigid material, and when
used by children, the fragility of these toy gliders has been
readily apparent. The relatively great fragility of materials such
as balsa wood, especially in the thin sections utilized in wing and
tail portions of conventional toy gliders, leads to objectionable
breaking and splintering, thus resulting in limited play value. In
addition, conventional toy gliders, made of balsa wood, usually
have a fuselage portion in the form of a thin stick in order to
conserve weight. This results in a generally unrealistic
appearance. In recent attempts to overcome the drawbacks of balsa
wood gliders, toy gliders have been manufactured using a plastic
formed of expanded beads such as styrofoam. Although light in
weight and relatively easily moldable, this material is relatively
rigid and easily broken, when handled by children. When broken, the
fracture zone of this type of plastic crumbles into small beads
which are relatively hard to clean, thus making this type of glider
objectionable for indoor play.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art
by providing a toy foam glider which is made of a flexible plastic
foam. The toy foam glider, according to the present invention,
includes a fuselage portion which has the general outline of an
aircraft fuselage and which has a horizontal slot to accommodate a
wing portion and a vertical slot to accommodate a rudder portion.
The wing and rudder portions are manufactured of a relatively thin
sheet of a closed-cell flexible foam and the fuselage is
manufactured of a relatively low density open-cell foam. The wing
is slightly wider than the length of the horizontal slot and the
leading and trailing edges of the wing are notched to fit the width
of the fuselage to interlock therewith and thereby retain the wing
relative to the fuselage. The flexibility of both the fuselage and
the wing enables the wing to be inserted into the horizontal slot
and to lock onto the fuselage when the notched portions engage the
fuselage. The forward portion of the fuselage includes a solid
plastic cylinder which serves as a balance weight thus improving
the aerodynamic properties of the toy foam glider. The flexibility
of the fuselage and the wing and rudder enables the toy foam glider
to absorb the energy of impact without damage to either the toy
foam glider or to windows, walls or furniture, thus facilitating
safe indoor play.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a toy foam
glider which is unbreakable in normal use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy foam
glider which may be used indoors without damage to furnishings as a
result of collisions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy foam
glider made of a flexible plastic foam.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy foam
glider of the character described having a balance weight imparting
good aerodynamic characteristics.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a toy
foam glider which may be manufactured using relatively low cost,
high volume tooling, resulting in a relatively low unit cost and
permitting wide distribution.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become
apparent during the course of the following specification, when
taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a toy foam glider in
accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded top plan view of the component parts of the
toy foam glider of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line 3--3
of FIG. 1 .
With reference to the drawing, there is shown in FIG. 1 a toy foam
glider 10, made in accordance with the present invention. The toy
foam glider 10 includes a fuselage 12 which has a contoured
peripheral surface 14 generally resembling the contour of an
aircraft fuselage. A straight-walled wing slot 16, which is
generally perpendicular to the sides 18 and 20 of the fuselage 12,
is located in a central portion 22 of the fuselage 12. A
straight-walled rudder slot 24 is located at the rear 26 of the
fuselage 12 and is perpendicular to the top fuselage surface 28.
The fuselage 12 also includes a circular hole 30 in the forward
portion 32 of the fuselage 12 for the purpose of retaining a
balance weight 34 which serves to improve the flight
characteristics of the toy foam glider 10. The balance weight 34
has a cylindrical central portion 36 and a pair of end flanges 38
and 40. The diameter of the central portion 36 corresponds to the
diameter of the circular hole 30 and during the installation of the
balance weight 34, the material of the fuselage 12 is stretched
over the end flange 40 and then returns to shape, thus retaining
the balance weight 34.
The wing 42 of the toy foam glider 10 has a tapered leading edge 44
and a straight trailing edge 46 resulting in a delta wing
configuration. The central portion 48 of the leading edge 44 and
the central portion 50 of the trailing edge 46 have respective
notched portions 52 and 54, as shown in FIG. 2. The distance
between edge 56 of notch 52 and edge 58 of notch 54 corresponds to
the length of the wing slot 16 and the width of the notch 52 and
notch 54 corresponds to the width of the fuselage 12. During
installation of the wing 42, the material of the fuselage 12 is
stretched over the corners 60 and 62 and of the wing 42 when the
wing 42 is inserted into the wing slot 16 in the direction of the
arrow 64 in FIG. 2. The material of the fuselage 12 and the wing 42
return to shape after the installation of the wing 42, thus
retaining the wing 42 in place.
The toy foam glider 10 also includes a rudder 66 which is inserted
in the rudder slot 24 in the direction of the arrow 68 in FIG. 2.
The rudder 66 has a projecting tab 70 which rests on the surface 72
of the fuselage 12, as shown in FIG. 3, thus locating the rudder 66
in the vertical direction.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the fuselage 12 of the
toy foam glider 10 is made of a relatively low density open cell
foam, such as polyurethane foam and the wing 42 and the rudder 68
are made of a closed cell elastomeric foam having a somewhat
greater density then the foam used for the fuselage. The relatively
low density of the foam used for the fuselage 12 makes possible the
use of a thickness of foam which permits a more realistic
representation of the thickness of an aircraft fuselage than is
possible using conventional toy glider materials such as balsa
wood. The relatively low stiffness and the resiliency of the foam
material permits the use of the toy foam glider 10 indoors without
the danger of damage to walls or furniture, or to the toy foam
glider 10 itself, due to impact during collision.
The tapered nose portion 74 of the fuselage 12 deforms easily and
presents a relatively soft impact area which absorbs the energy of
impact and then returns to its original shape. Similarly the wing
12 and the rudder 66 deform during impact and then return to their
original shape leaving the toy foam glider 10 undamaged. The
relatively high coefficient of friction between the foam material
of the fuselage 12 and the wing 42 and rudder 66 portions combined
with the corners 60, 62, 76 and 78 on the wing 42 and the
projecting tab 70 on the rudder 66 reduces the possibility of the
wing 42 or the rudder 66 becoming dislodged during use.
While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and
described herein, it is obvious that numerous additions, changes
and omissions may be made in such embodiment without departing from
the spirit and scope of the invention.
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